PHILADELPHIA

I'm a little ahead of myself with the picture, but food shots are a favorite for us and here we are in The City Tavern, a favorite of the founding fathers.  We had Thomas Jefferson's favorite rolls here.  We left State College at 9:30 AM and stopped off at Lerch's to check the refrigerator...ummm, no gas-a lesson learned and we're hardly underway.  We're staying at a KOA in Coatesville.

JUNE 15, 2012

Into Philly we go.  We're seven miles from the train station and today we are taking the 9:10 AM train into the city.  Fun, fun, fun and very convenient.  Tom is excited that he gets to ride free while I have to pay $12.00 for a round trip.  The trip into town takes about an hour and drops us at East Market Station which is five blocks from Independence Memorial Park.  We walked by Betsy Ross's house, through Franklin Square with its carousel and fountain.  Franklin Square is part of a 9200 acre park system.  Today we had lunch at City Tavern and although we didn't have George Washington's beer, we did have Thomas's rolls.  We had water in chilled pewter glasses and corn chowder in hot pewter bowls.  In the afternoon we toured Independence Hall and saw where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.  We got the 4:06 PM train home. 

JUNE 16, 2012

Not so many trains running today and we want an early start to see the Liberty Bell before the crowds arrive.  Interestly, it has been broken nearly as long as we have had it.  From there we walked to Philly's South Side to the Italian Market where we purchsed fresh vegetables for dinner and checked out the two competing places for the best Philly Cheese Steaks - Pat's and Geno's.  We shared one of each - I liked Pat's and Tom liked Geno's.  We walked back to Penn's Landing on the Delaware River and that just about did us in so we headed for the train.  We ate our fresh vegetables and Chicken marinated in Italian dressing - a la Tommy - grilled by chef Tom.

JUNE 17, 2012

We started out the day thinking we were going to the West Oak Lane Jazz Festival, but it turned out to be in Northwest and 1 1/2 hours away from us.  We decided to take a drive over to check out Longwood Gardens as we are meeting Barb and Bill there tomorrow.  What we learned is that Longwood Gardens is easily a two-day mission.  And...they had a Father's Day Bunch, so we decided to stay and are so glad we did.  What an incredible place and thank-you Mr. Dupont for saving this wonderful place for us to enjoy.  Topiaries and water fountains and water gardens and all meticulously maintained for us all.  And then there was brunch on the patio among the trees.  We started with Longwoods special mushroom soup and then I had the asparagus omelet and Tom had the French toast.  Between courses we had Earl Grey ice tea with a tiny, tiny scone and their desserts defy description.  We spent the afternoon in the Conservatory - water lily ponds, orchid rooms, banana palm room,  the melon room, the grape room and on and on.  Lastly, we visited Pierre Dupont's house which features his very first conservatory.  We are anxious to return tomorrow with Barb and Bill who have been in Philadephia for the wedding of Bobby and Joanne Wills' son.

JUNE 18. 2012

Met Barb and Bill and with them we revisited the Conservatory which for us was just as interesting as yesterday.  We walked through the flower gardens and visited one of three treehouses and Dupont's house.  We had lunch at the Cafe.  I had the mushrrom soup - again.  After lunch B and B headed back to Vienna.  We visited the last two treehouses and headed home just as the rain started